


Wasteland, Baby!

by Insertpoetryhere



Category: Invader Zim
Genre: Angst, Autistic Dib, Autistic and hard of hearing author, Explosions, Found Family, GIR is a dog, Gen, Hard of Hearing Zim, Human Trafficking, Human Zim, I wrote this for me but you can read it too ig, M/M, Mutation, Post-Apocalypse, Slow Burn, greif, its soft despite all of the death and destruction, note the little h
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-10
Updated: 2020-04-10
Packaged: 2021-03-01 19:35:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,394
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23572465
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Insertpoetryhere/pseuds/Insertpoetryhere
Summary: The world ended suddenly, leaving three kids alone against the ruins.Well... not completely alone.
Relationships: Dib & Gaz (Invader Zim), Dib & Zim (Invader Zim), Dib/Zim (Invader Zim), Gaz & Zim (Invader Zim)
Comments: 3
Kudos: 44





	Wasteland, Baby!

The world ended with an explosion. Unexpected, and unavoidable.

Dib didn’t even remember how or when it happened. All he knew was that he woke up on the sidewalk behind a destroyed building on the outskirts of town. Gaz was hovering over him, her eyes teary and her hands shaking.

That’s when he knew life as they knew it was over.

Now, the two of them stood before the burnt rubble of their former home. The charred remains were still smoking, creating an unreal grey haze around it. This couldn’t be real…

“This is where it came from, isn’t it?” Dib said finally, holding back the tears. Gaz didn’t answer at first, just staring at the ash that fell around them apathetically.

“Seems like it.” Her voice was quiet, but the cutting edge of sadness did not go unnoticed by the keen ears of her brother.

Their dad was home. It was something that neither was willing to mention yet. Dib had gotten into an argument with him about his plans for the future. 

“You need to have some idea of what you want!” His father had pointed out over their dinner that he hadn’t cooked. 

“I do, Dad.” The conversation was painfully familiar. A rerun of a conversation they had a million times before. “I want to study the paranormal.”

“I mean a real idea.” Professor Membrane faltered before he continued. “You know that keeping focus on anything is difficult, given your… thing.”

“And what is that ‘thing’, Dad?” Dib had no idea where it had come from, if his rage had come suddenly from hearing it too many times in his short life or if it had been growing in him for the past 11 years. All he knew was that it had finally escaped with a power that his frail body with a fervor. “Why won’t you just call it what it is!”

Professor Membrane shifted uncomfortably. “Son-”

“Autism, Dad.” He had said. “It’s called autism.”

Then he left. He didn’t know where to, or at what point Gaz had caught up to him. All he knew is that he left.

And Dad was dead. He knew that too.

Neither sibling shifted through the crumbling ruins with any desperation. Neither fell to their knees and sobbed. Neither cried out their father’s name into the dust filled emptiness. They just shed their silent tears and left.

There would be too much going on in the next few days for them to properly mourn anyway.

\---

“Gaz, watch out!” Dib, yelled, his voice muffled by the makeshift mask he had made from a white t-shirt in an abandoned store. 

His sister turned, swinging her metal bat with the grace and precision of a baby giraffe taking its first steps. Still, it did the trick and the mutant behind her fell to the ground with a stomach churning crack. The current theory is that they might have been cockroaches at one point, but the blast had mutated them beyond any recognition. 

After it hit the earth, Gaz stared at it, rubbing her own green tinted skin. It seemed that the blast had a… different effect on any human DNA that it encountered. The Membrane siblings had been monitoring Gaz’s changes closely, but so far it only seemed to have affected her in small ways. She healed a little faster, swung her bat a little harder, and looked a little… well, greener. Not by much, just a tint over her already olive toned skin. 

Even though the “upgrades” were minor, they were not unappreciated. Every little thing helps when you’re living through the end of the world. 

“You think there’s more?” Gaz asked, grimacing at the green goo that covered the side of her bat. Dib squinted off in the distance, taking note of the damaged buildings that could be used as hiding places.

“There has to be,” He sighed, giving the carcass of the mutated bug a little kick. “They travel in packs.”

Gaz gave a nod, raising her bat again in preparation. Dib’s crowbar was raised as well, though not as confidently as his sister held her weapon. The two ducked behind the rubble of what was at one point a library, watching down the street for any movement.

Two mutants came crawling out of one of the alleys, followed up by another four. “This is the biggest pack we’ve ever seen!” Dib whispered in both horror and amazement. They were also the biggest in general, spanning at least seven feet in length. The siblings sunk further into the shadows, knowing full well how the combination of keen eyesight and a preference for the taste of humans tends to not work in their favor.

The one in the lead stood up on it’s back legs, it’s antenna moving like a compass as it tried to track down something to eat. Dib held his breath, hoping that it would throw off whatever sense the mutant was using to find them.

It let out a screech, a signal that only meant one thing. It had found food.

Dib and Gaz scrambled into a proper fighting position, their hearts pounding as they prepared to fend off the mutants to the best of their ability.

The pack began to crawl at full speed, all of them letting out their various screeches of excitement as they raced down the street. Though… not towards them? The mutants ducked into an alley, eliciting a shrill scream from what both of the Membrane siblings knew was a dead end.

They froze, almost not wanting to get their hopes up. Dib looked over to Gaz just to confirm that he hadn’t imagined it. The look of amazement on her face told him that she had heard it too.

There was another survivor.

“We have to help.” Dib said, not waiting for his sister to respond before rushing out into the open. He ran at full speed, almost skidding to a stop at the opening of the alley. “Hey! Over here!”

The mutants turned their attention to Dib, and only then could he see that their numbers had diminished. Instead of six, there were now only three. One was laying dead near the end of the alley, the biggest one, with green ooze creating a pool around him. He watched the other get struck in the center of the skull, falling over dead with one hit. 

A boy stood against the wall, a lead pipe in his hands and a look of pure confusion on his face. Something about the lighting made him look… off? Wait, was his skin green?

“Hey, behind you!” He called out, tearing Dib from his thoughts. He suddenly felt the weight of one of the mutants on his back, causing him to fall to the ground. 

Dib’s head hit the cracked concrete, blurring his vision and causing his crowbar to clatter just out of his reach. He had no time to grab for it before the ugly, enlarged mutant’s mouth was only inches from his own neck. He held his arms out, pushing back against the mutant’s head in a futile attempt to push it off and grab the crowbar from the sidewalk.

He leaned his head back watching as the other boy tore his way through the other three mutant roaches, killing each one with a single swing. It was terrifying how far they flew, as if they had been hit by something ten times the size of the shorter than average child that was taking them down.  
He fixed his big eyes on the roach that was currently trying to eat at Dib’s head, and with one quick strike to the head he killed it. The creature died on top of Dib, the pinchers open wide and landing with one on each side of his neck. 

He let out a sigh of relief, pushing the dead mutant off of him, and pushing himself up to a sitting position. “Thanks, I-” He started but froze once he realized that the business end of the boy’s lead pipe was now pointed directly at his head.

He gulped almost comically loud, finally looking up and getting a good look at the boy who he just watched tear his way through six mutants without so much as breaking a sweat. It had not been a trick of the light. He was green.

“Do you have any idea what you almost did?” He asked, his voice just as shrill when he spoke as it was when he screamed. “You don’t just run into a fight that isn’t yours!”

He had a backpack hanging off of his shoulders, an overstuffed drawstring bag with a vaguely familiar logo on it. When he moved, Dib could hear the contents shift. He had a black undershirt on, with an oversized purple t-shirt that he must have thrown on after the explosion. It was covered in various splatters of green and red.

“Dib…” Dib muttered in some kind of dazed introduction. The other boy furrowed his brow, seeming to not understand what Dib was trying to do.

“I’m sorry, what?” He lowered his lead pipe as if it would help him magically understand what Dib was saying. 

Dib pushed his hand out to him for a handshake. “I’m Dib.”

Now the green boy just looked lost. “How hard did you hit your head? I’m about to beat you to death with a pipe, and you’re-”

“Hey! Get away from him!” Gaz called, finally catching up. She had her bat over her shoulder, ready to swing. The boy looked panicked, taking a step back and shifted his lead pipe so that he would be able to better swing at a moment’s notice.

Dib stumbled to his feet, brushing off his clothes before he continued. “Are you alone?”

“Dib, I don’t think you’re asking the right questions right now.”

“Seriously, should you go get that checked out?”

Dib didn’t let up, he just waited patiently for a response.

“Fine.” The boy gave in. “Yes, I’m alone.”

A yipping noise came from his bag, causing the siblings to jump and the green boy’s eyes to widen. “... Mostly.”

A small dog popped his head out of the gap, his tongue sticking out of his mouth. His fur was a strange green color that almost matched his owner’s own skin. He flopped out of the back, causing the boy to drop his lead pipe and stumble to catch him. The siblings watched in absolute fascination and horror as his limbs moved much quicker then they had ever seen any human move. They looked to one another, forming a secret plan.

“Well… If you don't mind, I’ll be-” He began to reach down to grab his pipe and head out without a fight before Gaz cut him off.

“I don’t know Dib, are you sure we should tell him?” She asked, her voice very loud and pointed. Dib raised an eyebrow. Ok, so maybe their plans weren’t as in sync as he had thought, but her’s was probably better so he’ll just have to go for it.

The boy turned over his shoulder, an eyebrow raised. “Tell me what?” He asked, his attention now back on the siblings but his lead pipe still at a decent distance.

Gaz smiled her trademarked sneaky smile. “What way are you going, exactly?”

“North?” He said, his spine straightening. Gaz gave a Dib a grimace, which he returned even though he hadn’t quite figured out what she was going for. 

“Yikes, all alone?” Gaz said. She let out a low whistle. “Well, good luck I guess.”

“Why? What’s out there?” His panic was starting to shine through. Dib smiled, suddenly understanding what the plan was.

“God, what isn’t out there?” Dib lamented. He turned to his sister with a sigh. “Remember poor Tommy?”

“Wait, who?” The boy looked thoroughly terrified, but the two still wanted a little extra fear to seal the deal.

Gaz put her hand to her temple in mock grief before doing the sign of the cross (she did it backwards, but hopefully the boy wouldn’t notice). “God rest his soul…”

“What happened to him?” He asked, his skin now blanched.

The two ignored him. Finally, Gaz spoke again. “Well, good luck!”

She then turned around, walking away. Dib looked between the two in confusion before running to catch up with his sister. “What are you doing?”

“Just give it a second.” She said with full confidence. Dib frowned a little, but walked alongside his sister. 

He snuck a glance over his shoulder, looking at the boy. He turned back to Gaz. “I don’t think it’s-”

“Wait!” The green boy called out. The siblings turned around, Gaz seeming quite pleased with herself as he ran up to them.

“Perhaps it would be in your benefit for me to come along.” He said. “After all, I have.. Erm…” He looked down at the puppy in his hands. “A… dog… You know what, that’s not the point.”

“Of cou-” Dib began, but was cut off.

“Why should we?” Gaz asked. “I mean, what’s in it for us?”

The boy held up his dog a little higher, but Gaz shook her head. “No, besides him.”

Dib gave his sister a look that said “What the hell are you doing?”, but she seemed just as calm as ever.

The boy bit at his lip, thinking a bit before he finally spoke. “What about a bunker?”

Both siblings stopped breathing for a moment. “You have a bunker?” Dib asked, suddenly feeling the desperate need for any type of permanent shelter.

“It’s not technically mine, but I know how to get in.” He said, holding his hand out. “Help me not die, and I’ll take you there. Deal?”

Dib did not even hesitate to shake his outstretched. “Deal!”

Gaz cleared her throat. “So what exactly is your name?”

The boy looked a little sheepish. He kicked at the rocks below his feet. “Zim.”

Dib smiled. “I’m Dib-”

“I know, you told me like three times after you hit your head. I still think you should check that out, by the way.”

“-And this is my sister, Gaz.” Gaz gave a nod. Zim looked between the two, also nodding.

“Ok… cool.” He said. “Nice.”

The trio stood there in silence for a moment before Gaz spoke up. “Well, lead the way.”


End file.
